Tecumseh volleyball team falls to Dexter in 5 sets

Wednesday

Oct 3, 2012 at 4:00 PM

By John CastleDaily Telegram Sports Writer

TECUMSEH — Up two sets to none is just where you want to be when you're playing the top volleyball team in your league.

The Tecumseh Indians did just that Tuesday night, but then things began to fall apart and Dexter rallied for a 24-26, 17-25, 25-17, 25-14, 15-10 win to stay unbeaten in Southeastern Conference play at 9-0. The Indians, meanwhile, slip to 6-3 in the SEC and 18-11-2 overall.

Surprisingly, this was the first one-on-one match the Indians have played at home all season, though they did host a tournament earlier.

"This is the first time a lot of these girls have had the floor all to themselves for one match as varsity players," explained Tecumseh coach Kerry Watkins. "It's a little different scene than having a tournament because all eyes are on you instead of several different courts. I think a couple of my younger players were a bit nervous. We have seven players who were playing out there for the first time in a varsity match, and Jordyn (Norkey) is my only girl with back row experience."

Several different reasons went into the result that was about to come Tecumseh's way, however, not just the inexperience factor.

"We came out and played with a lot of emotion right away, and I wasn't sure we could do that," Watkins continued. "Overall it was a very good match for five sets for us. A couple times this season we have let little things affect our play, but tonight in the first two sets that didn't happen at all, and then from then on, it started happening a little more frequently.

"I think early we got up two sets and they weren't even thinking about that, and maybe it set in after that because they know Dexter is very good, and they may have surprised themselves with how good they played early. It's hard to tell."

Norkey, one of just two seniors on the squad (Jessica Benedict the other) hit a shot to an empty spot in the Dexter defense to give the Indians their only lead of the fifth and deciding set, 4-3. Dexter would score the next five points to take an 8-4 lead with the help of a couple lift calls on the Indians. Norkey stuffed a Jodie Dusack kill attempt to the floor to bring the Indians within 9-7, but five unanswered points on Carolyn Whitaker's serve brought the Dreadnaughts to match point, which was eventually delivered by Rachel Spencer with a hit down the line.

"We've seen Dexter four times this season now, and nothing they do surprised us, but they are a good serving team and they hit their zones well tonight," Watkins said. "We have struggled at times with serve receive, and we made a few errors tonight, but it was nothing we couldn't overcome. We went after every ball in those first two sets, and we didn't do that as well in the later sets."

The Indians were forced to work from behind virtually the entire first set, trailing by s much as 12-3 at one point. Dexter's blockers were sending many of the attacks by Norkey and Hannah Galloway back to them, and some times the Indians were regrouping to set up a follow-up attack.

So the Indians started some off-speed challenges, and the Dreadnaughts were slow to react to numerous tips and lighter hits offered up by the Indians. Soon Tecumseh saw its nine-point deficit turn into a 26-24 first-set win.

Just the opposite was true of the second set as Tecumseh took an early lead and denied Dexter many chances at taking the lead, however, Tecumseh's never grew to more than three or four points except at the very end of the set. Tied at 16-16, the Indians closed out the set with a 9-1 run to put themselves one set away from a clutch conference win.

"Tonight I could see a huge improvement over the way we played them earlier in the season," Watkins said of her team. "We still have to address a few parts of our game, but the overall improvement was very obvious to me."

The third set was a nail-biter for the first half when Dexter had gained a 12-11 advantage. However, with lefty hitter Susanna Pilkerton and outside hitter Talia Wood starting to catch fire, the Dreadnaughts surged and were able to take advantage of a few Tecumseh hitting errors to keep the match alive. The Indians had the lead just twice in the fourth set, setting up the winner-take-all fifth set. The Indians had chances to send Dexter home with its first division loss, but it wasn't to be. What the Indians got out of it was valuable experience against a fine team, and learning a bit about themselves for future matches.

Norkey paced the Indians with 16 kills and 17 digs while Galloway added 12 kills, 10 digs and two blocks. Setter Benedict managed 45 assists and 12 digs and freshman Morgan Skelton led with four blocks.

"As the season goes along, we can think back on this match and remember the little things that went wrong and (hopefully) avoid those again," Watkins said. "But as an overall five-set match, we played pretty well. This team will only get better as our younger players mature."